6
Thursday, September 28,1995
‘Safe’ Offers Difficult
And Compelling Plot
I lived in Manhattan over the summer,
and heard of no film more anticipated than
Todd Haynes’ “Safe.” Since then I have
read everywhere that it’s a powerhouse
film, maybe the best of the year. However,
the turnout for opening weekend at
Durham’s Carolina Theatre was surpris
ingly small. Apparently, many who saw
“Safe” at Cannes walked out midway
through the film. Why?
As advance notices have said, “Safe”
stands out be
cause it is actu
ally about some
thing, even (es
pecially) with
this recent
BRYAN DONNELL |
Movie Review
"Safe"
A
Quentin Tarantino-led resurgence of indie
filmmaking. Being about something rarely
magnetizes viewers to a film, unless its
director can promise a safely exciting ride
along the way. Indie films of the “Clerks”-
and “Pulp Fiction”-type may in fact suc
ceed commercially because they are en
tirely about the ride itself. “Safe”, how
ever, is unapologetically difficult, even gru
elling. It’sallaboutambiguity: no security,
no sure resolutions. Suspense drives you
relentlessly through the story, but it is a
suspense that means being constantly un
balanced and disoriented.
The story follows Carol (played pain
fully well by Julianne Moore) from the
“safety” ofher suburban existence through
the onset of “El” an undiagnosable im
mune deficiency disorder that strongly re
sembles AIDS. This “environmental ill
ness, ” is apparently caused by contact with
everyday household substances: makeup,
car exhaust, her husband's cologne. Carol
responds to a flier that asks, “Are you
allergic to the 20th century?”
Two traps director Haynes could have
fallen into with this story would have made
“Safe ” palatable to a much wider audience
while still remaining respectable.
First of all, he could have made a film
about the disease —a kind of art house
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“Outbreak”. The parallels between El and
AIDS, for example, are ripe for an adven
ture tale fueled by tidy moralizing.
Secondly, he could have made a victim
out of Carol and worked a grand catharsis
out of the ending.
Carol does not exactly earn our sympa
thy. The key tension of the film is that we
are never really sure whether her disease is
“real” or a symptom of the elaborate emo
tional defenses she pillows between herself
and everything that could possibly touch
her. Asa friend with whom I saw “Safe”
observed, Carol’s extreme frailty arouses a
desire to see her as cracked rather than
protected. When a doctor tells Carol she’s
perfectly healthy, although her face ap
pears as ravaged as an AIDS patient’s, it is
all too easy to wonder if the doctor is right.
Complicating matters is the fact that we
see everything from her point of view. The
doubt we have toward her, then, circles
back onto us as paranoia. When her hus
band (Xander Berkeley) sprays deodorant
near her, we are seized with apprehension,
but then we wonder: is this really some
thing to fear, or are we seizing upon the
unimportant in trying, along with Carol, to
find an enemy?
Carol eventually leaves her family for
the Wrenwood Center, anisolationistNew
Mexico safe haven for the “environmen
tally ill.” The Center’s cheesy New Age
guru (Peter Friedman) preaches self-love,
and the residents sing feel-good folk songs.
Although every effort is made to block the
bad vibes of the outside world, Carol’s
health still plummets. There is no resolu
tion: the point of “Safe” is ambiguity itself.
Haynes fully exploits the fact that film can
show us only appearances, in order to
create a sense of dread around how hard it
is to fix what is underneath. In Carol’s
case, when the self under the surface is
unknown, hated and lost among its own
defenses, this inspires a terror that Haynes
implies may be the real “20th century dis
ease.”
Featuring:
“Walk This World”
“Heal”
“Truth And Bone”
DIVERSIONS Movies
Sid Lidz (John Turturro, left) and his brother Danny (Michael Richards) are a study in contrasts, each avoiding what they view as craziness in the other.
Turturro, Richards Keep ‘Unstrung’ Tied Together
Many (if not most) films released dur
ing the year can be described as “button
pushers:” movies that the audience sits
through and is
more or less in
structed to be
happy at cer
tain places, sad
at some places,
TODD GILCHRIST |
Movie Review
"Unstrung Heroes'
C+
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power of the scene or the acting itself. Any
vehicle with a star like Andie MacDoweU
would normally considered a button
pusher, but “Unstrung Heroes” is saved by
the presence of John Turturro.
Steven Lidz (Nathan Watt) is 12 years
old and his life is growing more complex by
the day. His mother falls ill, and he is left to
cope with his father, Sid (Turturro), who
devotes all of his time to finding a cure for
his wife’s disease.
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Frustrated, Steven runs away to live
with his uncles, one of whom is a manic
conspiracy theorist and the other, a child
like junk collector. Steven soon assimilates
himself into their lifestyle, practicing Juda
ism and changing his name to Franz.
Diane Keaton makes her feature film
directing debut with “Heroes.” Her gen
teel directing was obviously influenced by
Woody Allen, in whose films came many
of her most distinguished performances
(“Annie Hall” and “Sleeper”).
Andie MacDowell’s performance was
subpar even for her; she makes maternal
concern sound like whiny nagging, and her
displays of weakness are carried off by
unnecessary physical motion. Another ac
tress would have served the film much
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better.
Turturro’s performance is the saving
grace of the film. To put an actor of his
caliber into a film like this is to elevate it to
another level. His meditative stares are
especially effective in the more serious
moments, and in the final scene, his rap
port with Steven is so pure and natural that
even this jaded reviewer wiped away a tear
or two.
Michael Richards, who is best known
as Kramer on “Seinfeld,” turned a charac
ter that might have been simply a mug-fest
into a substantially believable role; his tran
sition from the beginning to the end of the
film was surprisingly deep. Maury Chaykin,
who is frequently takes supporting roles in
films (among them “Sommersby” and
“Hero”), effectively conveyed that Arthur,
despite his eccentricities, grasps the funda
mentals of life perhaps better than most
other people.
Like Jodie Foster, Keaton has a definite
future in directing, but hopefully in the
future she’ll choose to hire actors for their
ability and not for their marquee value.
Still, “Unstrung Heroes” has several qui
etly powerful moments, and is generally an
enjoyable film to watch.
Freshmen &
Sophomores
Explore different career
options and look for
internships through the
Carolina
Career Day
September 28
In the Great Hall
12:30 - s:oopm
Crescent City
Music Hall
Thursday, 9/28
Pally Coslis Band
roeh-n-roll
Friday, 9/29
HTain Slree!
60'5 5 70s rhylhm S soul
Saturday, 9/30
Tjead Cooh
original roch
Monday, 10/2
3n the Join!
progressive acousiic jazz
Tuesday, 10/3
Bance (Tfrique
D] Josiah dance parly
Wednesday, 10/4
Salsa Carolina
dance lesson al 8:00
salsa dancing 9:15-2:00
504 1/2 W. Franklin St. • 932-3820
Hill Line: 549-4949, press 6